PHT’s Morning Skate takes a look around the world of hockey to see what’s happening and what we’ll be talking about around the NHL world and beyond.

The Oilers are champions once again! Well, sort of — Connor McDavid and Taylor Hall were part of the team that captured the Biosteel Cup, a 4-on-4 tournament held during the pre-training camp gathering of NHLers. (Sportsnet)

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost another experienced member of the blueline on Monday, as the club announced Roman Polak will undergo season-ending hernia surgery.

Polak, 28, was in his first year in Toronto following last summer’s trade from St. Louis and appeared in 56 games for the Leafs, scoring five goals and nine points while averaging 21:05 TOI per night.

As mentioned above, Polak is just the latest Leafs d-man to be lost for the year. Over the weekend, Toronto announced that 38-year-old Stephane Robidas was set to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. Both are under contract for next season; Robidas’ deal extends through 2017.

Bob Murray sounds like a guy that was pleased to see Blockbuster go under.

Following Tuesday’s “hockey deal” — the Ducks sent Devante Smith-Pelly to Montreal in exchange for Jiri Sekac — the Anaheim GM voiced his displeasure with the current state of the trade market.

“There’s a lot of talking going on, but it’s all about rentals, for Pete’s sake,” Murray said, per the Los Angeles Times. “It’s gone from a third-round pick for a rental, someone you might have for three months; now it’s a second- or first-rounder and a prospect.”

While Murray’s candor is enjoyable (more so if you envision him shaking his fist at the trade deadline), there’s definitely some posturing at play. For starters, the rental market hasn’t proven to be that expensive yet — on Tuesday, Minnesota acquired a pretty useful forward in Sean Bergenheim from Florida for a third-round pick — and, less than two weeks ago, Winnipeg and Buffalo combined to orchestrate one of the biggest blockbusters in recent memory where most of the principles (Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian, Tyler Myers) were building blocks, not rentals.

Of course, we’ve seen comments like these from Murray and GMs before, and they do occasionally prove to be somewhat effective. By bemoaning not just the quality of rental players, but also the asking price, the GM gives himself an out in the event he can’t make anything significant happen at the deadline (which is usually followed by something along the lines of “we weren’t going to mortgage the future.”)

It’s also worth remembering that Murray has history of posturing. After failing to land a big ticket at last year’s deadline (while picking up a cheap rental in Stephane Robidas, it should be mentioned), he expressed confusion and dismay about not getting a deal done despite having a pair of high draft picks in play — the old “I was ready to make a deal, they weren’t” narrative.

Anyway, back to the present. In light of this rentals-only market, Murray could end up having to wait ’til the offseason to make a big move, much like last year with the Ryan Kesler acquisition at the draft. The Ducks are clamoring for defensive help but it sure doesn’t look like there’s a ton available heading into Monday’s deadline — and, posturing or not, Murray sure doesn’t sound enamored with the idea of paying big for a rental.

“I’m not doing that here,” he explained. “It’s not my cup of tea, this rental world.”

We’ve talked plenty about Anaheim’s desire to add a defenseman — see here and here and here — and now, following a stretch in which the Ducks have surrendered 30 goals in seven games, it seems those talks have trickled down to the players.

Murray’s been in search of defensive fixes for a while now, and has done some previous patchwork: Eric Brewer was acquired from Tampa Bay in November, and Stephane Robidas was acquired at last year’s deadline.

That said, both of those deals were of the low-risk, low-cost variety. Robidas, 37, came on board for the price of a fourth-round pick and played just 17 games (14 regular season, three playoff) before leaving in free agency. Brewer, 35, could end up much the same; he’s a UFA at season’s end and has only appeared in six games after breaking his foot shortly after being acquired.

But neither Robidas nor Brewer moved the needle much. One would think Murray wants to make a bigger splash this time around.

Whether or not he can make one, though, remains to be seen. Tyler Myers is off the board following Wednesday’s blockbuster move to Winnipeg and, as we’ve often seen come deadline day, there are more teams interested in capable defensemen than there are capable defensemen.

The Ducks could be in on Marc Methot. They could be in on Cody Franson. They could be in on Mike Green — assuming the playoff-bound Caps decide to move him — but Anaheim won’t be alone in any of these pursuits. Which begs two questions: 1) How much does Murray believe in a blueline featuring a top-four of Fowler, Francois Beauchemin, Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanen? And 2) If he doesn’t believe in it enough, how much is he willing to spend on a legitimate upgrade?